Brachionus leydigii (Monogononta: Ploima) reported from the western basin of Lake Erie

Several species of non-indigenous planktonic invertebrates have historically been introduced to the Laurentian Great Lakes. Previous introductions of non-indigenous planktonic invertebrates to the Great Lakes have been crustacean zooplankton, specifically Cladocera and Copepoda. This report documents the first known occurrence of Brachionus leydigii var. tridentatus (Zernov, 1901) in Lake Erie and possibly the first detection of a non-indigenous rotifer species in the Laurentian Great Lakes. The specimen was collected from a U.S. EPA monitoring station in the western basin of Lake Erie on April 4, 2016.